HITACHI DZ-MV208E

Uleads DVD Workshop (DW) is a pared-down digital video editor, designed specifically with DVD fans in mind. Its able to work natively with both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, as well as AVIs and even QuickTime movies.

As well as being the first company to launch EIDE DVD burners into the mainstream IT marketplace, Pioneer is the company behind DVD-R and DVD-RW recordable media formats. In the last couple of years, it has fought hard to stave off competition from Philips' rival standard, DVD+RW, and until recently buying a DVD recorder meant locking yourself into one standard over the other.

There was a time when Pinnacle dominated the PC video-editing market. But, after its initial success with the DV500, the advent of sophisticated realtime editing seemed to leave the company behind. While it was a good product, the company’s Pro-ONE arrived when competitive products from Matrox and Canopus had been available for some time. The Pinnacle Edition PRO 5 is an entirely different matter.

According to analysts at IDC (International Data Group),DVD is now the fastestgrowing consumer electronic technology ever.

Great real-time performance, particularly with high definition footage. But the EDIUS Pro software still needs a few more features to usurp the competition.

Despite the fact it's aimed at professional users - corporate and event videographers and advanced home-video enthusiasts are the target market - Ulead DVD Workshop 2 retains many of the ease-of-use features for which the company has become known.

Hitachi DZ-MV100E

Ulead has often been quick to respond to market demand and DVD Movie Factory is no exception.

Daikin may be more familiar to some as the producer of Scenarist, a high-end professional package which has been used in the authoring of many major blockbusters.

A high end DVD-based camcorder for quick and clean shooting.

Sony's DVD201E HandyCam is a good example of how far DVD cameras have come and what a bit of commonsense can do when selecting the right format. Unlike some of the earlier DVD cameras which opted for the unpopular DVD-RAM rewritable format, Sony elected to go with the more common DVD-RW format.

Like its direct competitor Ulead DVD MovieFactory, Pinnacle Express can be used to create VideoCD and SVCD discs as well as DVD titles. Unlike Ulead's program, however, it supports slide shows as well as video...

PowerDirector 3 is the latest version of CyberLink’s DV editing application aimed at home video enthusiasts. It has been radically overhauled since the previous version 2.5, and includes many new features as well as a revamped interface. On the capture front, a new quick-scan option enables fast pre-capture preview of an entire 60-minute DV tape in just six minutes. There’s also a new title editor, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) motion effects can be easily added, a three-track audio mixer provides real-time mixing during playback, and you can now record voiceover narration during timeline playback of a project.

The menu setup panel is where DVD menu layouts are customised with thumbnails, backgrounds and music.

One of only two DVD burners this month to come with a two year manufacturer warranty, the BenQ DW400A offers peace of mind should things go pear shaped.

Hitachi pioneered the concept of recording digital video direct to DVD . Now into its third generation of DVD cameras, a few competitors have appeared on the horizon with its first generation models

DVD is said to be to movies what CD was to music. Well-filmed DVD movies are better in all respects than those recorded on VHS, so the idea of a digital video camera recording direct to DVD disc would appear sound.

Even with falling hardware prices, the expense and yet to be finalised format war rages on with DVD writing technology deterring many a consumer. DVD+R/RW appear to be making headway gradually with both format flexibility and hardware integration into next generation platforms.

With the free products on our new cover DVD, you need never buy software again. So why do we still keep paying?